The loss of Signal Beam puzzled me too. On my Ultra Moon run, around half my Pokémon ended up using it, since it could be tutored cheaply on the first or second island. It provided great coverage to Pokémon such as Klink, Vespiquen, or Clefairy. It's a move with such great distribution that it's really strange they chose to remove it. Sort of like Feint Attack, Mud Bomb, or Ominous Wind. So good for in-game for so many Pokémon, yet removed nonetheless.
Maybe that's why they removed it. It was TOO widespread for a coverage move. Why need a Bug-type when you can likely catch a Pokemon that can learn Signal Beam.
Honestly, Hidden Power wasn't surprising. The move's mechanics are a disaster.
Not a disaster until they introduced the Fairy-type. When Fairy was introduced they didn't bother re-doing HP to that Type, kind of going against the point of Hidden Power. Plus it gave any Special Attacker an okay coverage move while Physical Attackers were left with nothing.
Not sure how heavily affected the metagame was of its removal, but I imagine a batch of Pokemon now needing to look for a new Move for their competitive sets. The only big issue of its removal is concerning Unown as it was the ONLY move Unown knew. If they were to bring back Unown I imagine they would do one of the following:
- Bring back Hidden Power BUT it only works for Unown. One may say probably the easiest solution, though at the same time means Unown would still be kind of useless as it already is. Dexit has given GF the chance to take a closer look at returning Pokemon and I'd imagine if they were to bring Unown back they'd feel they would need to do something more with it. Also I'd imagine they would want to redo Hidden Power if they bring it back which I'll mention below.
- Give Unown all the "Power" moves. As in Ancient Power, Cosmic Power, Earth Power, Extrasensory ("Supernatural Power" in Japan), Nature Power, Power Split, Power Swap, Secret Power, Stored Power, & Superpower. Now, this STILL wouldn't really help Unown, but hey at least it's more to work with than a single move.
- Give Unown a new Signature Move. Now this is probably the more attracting to GF. They're likely not going to touch Unown's stats or Ability, so probably only way to make it "better" is with a Signature Move and maybe new item. Since Unown are stronger together, I'd say make it so that if there's two more more Unown in your party the item/Signature move strengthen Unown & lets it hit hard. "But you can't use it in competitive/Battle Facilities then". Well they could make an exception for Unown to let you use multiple, though honestly I'd say time would be better spent making it fun to use personally in-game.
Now if they do bring back Hidden Power I can see one of two thing (well, first I'd imagine they would redo it so that it can be Fairy-type than do two of the following):
- If only Unown can use it, increase it to like 90-100 Power. If you're going to torment Unown with only one move at least give it high Power.
- Make Hidden Power customizable. Now if they do this option I think they should also do more with Unown as I suggested above, but I've already discussed that above. To make this simple, lower it's Power to 50 but just let us choose which Type we want it to be without manipulating IVs. I'd also say let us choose for it to either be Special or Physical, so any Pokemon can truly use it. If I were to add one more additional mechanic it would be whether it uses the target's opposite defense stat to calculate damage (so if HP is Physical it would use the target's Special Defense or if HP was Special it would use Defense; think how Psystrike, Psyshock and Secret Sword works). Now I would honestly do some more shenanigans with it but already I feel this is pushing into wishlisting.
In conclusion, I think HP is likely gone and if they bring back Unown we might be seeing some new stuff done with it.
If I recall correctly, this move was used in the past to perform some really interestingly stupid combos in battles. Probably got cut for these to not exist.
Assist also had a really odd distribution due to its Japanese name: Cat's Paw. Essentially only cat Pokemon got it. Well, and for some reason Drowzee, Sentret, Sneasel (it's a weasel not a cat), Spinda, and Espurr via breeding. Also for some reason Shinx and Litleo doesn't get it, yeah they're big cats but they're still feline. Overall that alone makes it gimmicky so not surprised was removed.
I imagine all those Electric-types that lost access to Hidden Power Ice or Fire would appreciate something to hit Grass-types, especially since Electric-types usually have shit coverage options.
It's called a partner that's a Fire- or Ice-type. At least I imagine that would be GF's reasoning; instead of making the Pokemon a one-mon army have it "stuck" with its weakness and need teammates to get through a Type wall.
